Review:"The Salt of Life"

Release Date: April 6, 2012Rating: Not RatedRunning Time: 90 minutes

Gianni Di Gregorio’s women troubles continue in The Salt of Life, a welcomed sequel to the gentle comedy of manners that marked the screenwriter’s lead acting and directorial debut, Mid-August Lunch. While Gregorio still spends much of his time tending to his elderly mother’s needs, he now must contend with the loneliness he experiences as a result of drifting apart from his wife. The Salt of Life finds the dignified Gregorio goggling every beautiful young woman in sight while being push by a friend to take on a lover. The Salt of Life does not unfold like an Italian version of a Woody Allen May-to-December romantic farce. Instead, it offers many telling observations about the crazy, stupid things men of all ages do when controlled by lust. The friends of Gregorio’s mother may love him, but that doesn’t mean their daughters and granddaughters do. His luck is so bad he can’t even pay for sex. Gregorio acknowledges that age is a state of mind, but doesn’t mean women are going to fall for a man who is 60 but feels 10 years younger. You can’t blame a woman for not wanting to be with someone who is old enough to be her father or, in Gregorio’s case, their grandfather. The women in The Salt of Life may represent Gregorio’s objects of desire, but he treats them with the utmost respect. Accordingly, The Salt of Life dissects male sexual fantasies in a light and refined manner without falling into the trap of becoming a bawdy Blake Edwards sexcom. So while we may find it uncomfortable to root for a man to find a way to cheat on his wife, The Salt of Life allows us to understand why an ignored husband aches for the touch of a woman.